Saturday, October 13, 2012

Why democracy is not enough to protect liberty

Preparing for a class this week I was researching the many cases involving freedom of religion and speech arising from persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses and came across this passage from West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 US 624:

The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections.

2 comments:

They will extol and preach *God's Kingdom* and this sounds attractive,what they obfuscate from you is their Watchtower society version that..... Jesus has already had his second coming in 1914 and is working *invisibly* exclusively through them. They have won 37 of their 46 US Supreme court cases assuring us all of freedom of speech and assembly and equal protection under the law. The sad irony is that the Watchtower Society *daily* abuses the human rights of thousands of its members. It denies current members the right of free speech by forbidding them to speak to former members, even close family members. And it denies former members their right of freedom of worship by refusing to allow them to leave the religion with dignity, should they come to disagree with Watchtower's practices or doctrines.

The religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is an oppressive cult that controls every aspect of its members' lives. -- Danny Haszard Watchtower dissident

It denies current members the right of free speech by forbidding them to speak to former members, even close family members. And it denies former members their right of freedom of worship by refusing to allow them to leave the religion with dignity, should they come to disagree with Watchtower's practices or doctrines.

This a good example of the level of ignorance people have regarding free speech. A religion cannot deny adherents the right to free speech except through expulsion from that religion. They cannot enforce any other punishment. The protections on freedom of speech strictly protect you from the government punishing you for your speech. It's scary that we would argue against the freedom of association and religion in favour of free speech inside a religion while we accept egregious restrictions from our democratically elected government.

Mr. Morton says rights, real rights, should not be subject to democracy yet we have so many breaches of those rights simply because a majority of Canadians (and sometimes not even that fig leaf applies!) finds the speech distasteful.